Holiday Inn Express & Suites Ft Lauderdale N - Exec Airport by IHG — Hotel in Fort Lauderdale

Had a great stay at this hotel while we were in town for an Inter Miami game.

Pros -Location -Value -Newly renovated rooms -Very friendly check-in staff -Plenty of parking

Cons (minor) -When I arrived for check-in, there was someone ahead of me I had to wait for. That's totally fine but they had 2 other employees behind the desk that didn't help with the check-in process and didn't seem to be doing anything else -Breakfast service staff. We arrived 17 minutes prior to the end of breakfast service. The breakfast area was packed with people eating. Myself and two others grabbed plates and here's what they had for hot food:

Scrambled eggs: none Bacon: 1 slice, undercooked Sausage: 2 links Biscuits: none Gravy: lots Cinnamon rolls: 1

I noticed the one cook standing off to the side of the buffet just watching everyone eat..I approached her and said "good morning, do you have any more food coming ?" She replied "no, we are getting ready to close up". I told her how there's at least 15 minutes left at this point. She again said they are about to close and didn't have anymore food coming .

About 5 minutes later (10 minutes before breakfast service ended) another family came down and asked the same question...and got the same answer.

I told the woman that I've never seen a hotel shut their breakfast down early in all my years of travel.

She finally agreed to bring some food out. A couple minutes later, she emerged with a small tray of scrambled eggs, some sausage and bacon. She also put out a sealed, cold tray of cinnamon buns.

As soon as all of this was set out, at least 6 people who had already been in the lobby, got up to grab more food.

I went to unseal the cinnamon buns and the same woman replied "those are cold. I'll have to microwave them".

Myself and the other family were put off by lack of interest to help us. The other woman working in the kitchen seemed to be the voice of reason to convince this first woman to make the food.

Other hotels I stay at will wait about 5-10 min after closing to pack up.

Other than this, we had...

Out of all the years I have been booking rooms with IHG, this was the worst experience I have ever had. I've been booking rooms with Holiday Inn Express all over Florida for at least the past 6 years. I usually request NOT to be sent to the reservations folks but understand that the front desk can be busy. I requested Not to be sent to reservations on this booking as I was going to request a CC Authorization form since I was sure it was out of date for this location. After booking w/ reservations which went well, I was asked to Update the information on my CC Authorization form with a new expiration date which I did and was assured it was still in good standings and on file. Of course, when the 3 occupants for the rooms showed up to check in after working outside all day, there was no chance of them being checked in as they were told I needed to provide a CC authorization form. Confused, I asked my person, which called me, if I could speak with the front desk attendant. She refused to take the phone so I could get an explanation of what had happened. I simply hung up and called the front desk where the attendant still had her assistant to tell me they could not check these 3 employees in until I sent the form. Of course, I was out of town and did not have my laptop anywhere on me, so these folks were not getting checked in until I filled out this form that was supposed to be on file. The Front Desk attendant said it was an error on Reservations, and I replied, that's why I asked not to be transferred. So, I had to go find my laptop which was about 30 minutes away while my employees sat in their trucks waiting. I consider IHG reservations a branch of IHG Hotels, obviously since that's who I was transferred to. Pointing the finger or blaming game on the Reservations and not wanting to speak with the Customer to provide an explanation is a failure on IHG, period. As a Diamond Elite member, I will be using another IHG in the area in the future if we return to work in Ft Lauderdale and I have already shared my experience...

I hate to write reviews like this as the hotel itself was comfy and clean but staff needs re-training!

Especially front desk as this is the first step into your hotel experience and if its not good. It starts you off with a bad taste in your mouth.

We stay with several brands IHG being the 2nd most stayed with. I own a company and travel often and book for others colleagues all the time.

I made a mistake and didn't send credit card authorization for in before her arrival. This has happened to us before and was handled perfectly.

Francia was at the front desk when our designer showed up to check in. She was informed she couldn't because she didn't have the credit card auth form. So our designer called to let us know, and I called to the front desk to apologize that it wasn't sent and to send it over and I will fill it out right away.

No CC Auth form received so called back and gave her 2 other emails because I don't think she was spelling them right because we never received them.

Called back a 3rd time and asked nicely if she could allow her to check in while we got this figured out and her responce was I can't.

Mind you colleague has been traveling since 4am and didn't arrive till that evening to the hotel.

So at that point I became frustrated with her and her ability to correctly send an email.

All of a sudden our designer came on the phone and said "don't worry I can just pay for it, until she gets it figured out"

HOW embarrassing I WAS ON SPEAKER PHONE THE WHOLE TIME while she heard the whole conversation waiting in lobby and apparently any or everyone else there too!

Instead of quickly getting it handled without her being involved.

HOW UNPROFESSIONAL having someone on speaker phone. I found out when I spoke with my colleague that morning that I was on speaker phone the whole time and thats why she interrupted and said she would pay for it.

FRANCIA might need to be retrained on customer Etiquette, since she the first impression of that...